North Korea appears to have doubled the size of a uranium enrichment plant at its main nuclear complex, satellite images from a Washington-based think-tank indicate, raising fears that it is accelerating its weapons programme. North Korea says that it is using the Yongbyon nuclear site to produce

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is in advanced talks to buy the London-based commodity business of Standard Bank, the South African lender, for up to $700 million. As China’s hunger for raw materials grows, ICBC is looking to Africa’s biggest bank to give it a ready-made platform for its

Six baby formula manufacturers have been fined a record 669 million yuan (£71 million) by the Chinese Government for price fixing in the latest major investigation to target wrongdoing by foreign companies. Danone, Fonterra, Mead Johnson, Abbott Laboratories and FrieslandCampina were among those

The chief executive of Fonterra apologised yesterday for a toxin-tainted milk scandal that threatens to undermine New Zealand’s $9 billion dairy industry and prompted its Prime Minister to criticise the company over its delayed response. China and Russia moved to ban imported Fonterra milk powder

The former chief of GlaxoSmithKline in China is set to return to the country to assist with a police investigation into a corruption scandal that has rocked the international pharmaceutical sector. Mark Reilly left China on July 5, a few days before details of a huge bribery scandal began to

Apple is facing fresh claims that it exploited Chinese workers and sanctioned under-age labour in a report that details a litany of alleged violations at one of the technology group’s biggest suppliers. An undercover investigation of three Pegatron factories employing 70,000 workers found 86 legal

More foreign drugs companies are likely to be swept into an anti-corruption crackdown that has battered GlaxoSmithKline as Beijing seeks to stamp out problems in its dysfunctional healthcare system, China’s official news agency said yesterday. The warning is the Chinese Government’s clearest

China’s vast manufacturing industry shrank at its fastest pace in almost a year this month, igniting fears that it may be in the grip of a more severe slowdown than had been thought. The HSBC/Markit flash purchasing managers’ index, an early reading of factory activity, fell from 48.2 in June to

Police in Shanghai questioned two AstraZeneca employees yesterday, one week after a sales representative was held over suspected malpractice. AstraZeneca said that the questioning of two line managers by Public Security Bureau officials in Shanghai was unrelated to a bribery investigation that has

GlaxoSmithKline has admitted that some of its senior China executives broke the law and pledged to overhaul its business practices as it attempts to stem the fallout from a spiralling bribery investigation that has battered its reputation in the fast-growing Asian market. After a meeting with